Most of us as children had objects from which we derived great comfort in childhood’s scarier moments, a trait embodied in the Peanuts character, Linus, who is seldom seen without his security blanket. Of course, few of us still carry — or admit to carrying — such comfort objects into our adulthood, but that does not stop us from turning to childhood mementos in uncertain times. Consider, for instance, how the decline of our economy has precipitated a resurgence in nostalgia.

Originally coined in the mid-17th century, nostalgia referred to a medical condition accompanied by tears and physical wasting. Literally it means the pain of longing to return home, and by the 20th century it was considered a psychological condition reflecting a preference for objects and experiences from one’s youth. But nostalgia is not limited simply to our own individual past; it can also mean a longing for what we believe were happier times that preceded us.

These days, nostalgia also means big business now that corporate America has begun to realize that everything old is new again. What we watch, what we eat, what we’re wearing, how we spend our free time, and where we’re doing it — our lives today don’t resemble the high-speed techno-dream once predicted by James Berry (no relation) so much as they resemble, well, our childhoods.

On the silver screen, over half of 2008′s top 10 grossing movies had roots in the very entertainment that kept us riveted as kids: Batman’s Dark Knight, the latest Indiana Jones flick, a new Bond film. The movie Iron Man resurrected a comic book character who’d made his first appearance in 1966. A beloved Dr. Seuss book took life on screen in Horton Hears a Hoo. Now in the works? No less than 55 movie remakes ranging from Romancing the Stone to The Karate Kid.

On the small screen, an entire cable channel — Boomerang — is dedicated to broadcasting the very cartoons we grew up with: Tom and Jerry, Popeye, even The Smurfs. Among the 20 most viewed cable channels: “Nick at Night” (#3) and “TV Land” (#18) — both heavily geared toward rebroadcasting sitcoms from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.

10 Comments, 10 Threads

Perhaps you’re right that our culture is seeking refuge in nostalgia, but perhaps you’re reading too much into Hollywood harvesting the deep well of brands that work.

It’s easier to market an established brand than try to hype up a new one, and it makes perfect sense to keep going back to what works until the well runs dry.

You’ll notice every financial success must have a sequal, and you’re seeing that classic remakes have caught fire. It’s astonishing others don’t see the obvious connection, and instead try to diagnose a societal trend out of it. (Maybe Kurt Warner made it back to the Super Bowl because our society had a psychological need to revisit the Greatest Show on Turf)

Nostalgia isn’t always a sure-fire seller for Hollywood, as the people who lost money on the big-screen versions of “Lost In Space”, “Starsky and Hutch”, “Miami Vice”, and “Get Smart” will tell you. Some things are simply too iconic of their own times to “travel well”, temporally speaking.

That said, a lot of nostalgia is not so much a search for comfort or a remembrance of an illusory better time as a notice served on the present that it needs to try harder. For instance, you know popular music is in trouble when groups that have been out of the mainstream for decades can begin touring again to sold-out arenas. Their modern day successors (who seem incapable of putting together actual coherent sentences as lyrics)might want to take notes of what the “geezers” are doing right even after all these years. (Hint; Try writing your own music, and lose the profanity.)

Ah, the Nineties. After the Cold War and before 9-11. Better than the Fifties even. But other than Seinfeld, Titanic, Enya, AbFab and maybe one Oasis album, I don’t remember that much culture worth nostalgia.

I dunno. I always felt people were very nostalgic for the most part independent of economic distress. It’s just hard to see this for some of us because we work in fields that try to take stock of what people are consuming, and assign meaning. If everyone did that, they’d be less nostalgic and probably more learning-oriented.

As you point out, nostalgia isn’t a bad thing: within the arts, some can take the things people get more easily into or relate to, and use them to explore deeper, more interesting ideas. I wrote an analysis of Batman Begins some time ago, and was really amazed by how it carefully and thoughtfully developed a theme and threw away some of our more problematic assumptions regarding justice and fear.

I totally agree with the whole 20 year cycle.
I was talking to my professor for sociology and we both noticed the same trend. Toys from the 80′s are coming back, fashion, tv shows.
I don’t think people really notice it, they just go along with whatever is out there.